Political Games - Where the fuck’s the reset button?

If it weren’t for the fact that I know several decent conservatives, the audacity of a [still fairly large] sampling of them would convince me that conservatives were heartless, spineless, and selfish. Let’s start with heartless.

Here, a conservative “intellectual” is discussing why every fallen soldier in Iraq is a failure:

A soldier’s #1 job is to stay alive. If you die, you can’t accomplish the mission, and you weaken your team and put your buddies in danger.

[…]

In war, there are no excuses. You find a way to stay alive, whatever it takes — if you’re a good soldier. Sheehan’s son didn’t do that. He paid the price. but he als failed the mission and let down his buddies.

As a soldier, he was a failure. He was brave (maybe), but he was also incompetent.

So, really, how much exactly are we supposed to grieve over this guy? Isn’t a certain amount of disapproval in order for the guy — and by extension his mom, for making such a fuss over a person who was, in the last analysis, by definition a loser? [emphasis mine]

You sanctimonious bastard. How fucking dare you question the bravery and integrity of the thousands who have died in that country because the president YOU elected started a war YOU support? You should be ashamed of yourself. It’s partly your fault they’re dead. Why don’t you get your sorry ass over there, since obviously there’re so many “failures” in the military. Maybe you could help them accomplish the mission… wait…. wasn’t the mission already accomplished?

[note: that comment might actually be satire. the fact that it’s hard to tell is striking.]

Moving on to spineless. The story here is that a military recruiter went to the suburban home of a boy who expressed interest to talk to the parents. The following occured:

The prospect’s mom greeted him wearing an American flag T-shirt.

“I want you to know we support you,” she gushed.

Rivera soon reached the limits of her support.

“Military service isn’t for our son. It isn’t for our kind of people,” she told him. [emphasis mine]

To quote System of a Down, “Why do they always send the poor?” Answer: it isn’t “for” the rich and famous. Cowards.

And finally, to the selfish. Rick Santorum [what a surprise…] was giving a little speech where he said that “You wouldn’t send your child into parts of east Wilmington at 11 o’clock at night alone if they’re 5 years old.” So where’s the selfish part, you ask? Consider the fact that there are many parents trying to raise families in East Wilmington. As the writer of the link explains, he’s telling his rich sponsors that “they” wouldn’t want to try to raise a kid there… but it’s ok for all those poor people! Asshole.

Sorry if these are short, I’m in a hurry. I’ll try to get a longer one out by Monday.

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